Deborah Eberhard

How does John's teaching on sin and righteousness in this passage relate to combating the false teachers? We have to stay on guard and cannot think it is okay to sin just because Jesus came and died for our sins. True, we are forgiven, but we cannot forget the blood shed for that forgiveness. We need to keep watch of those around us that will continue to convince us that its okay to sin, because we are human and will continue to sin. We need to remember that we have the seed planted within us, and that seed will continue to prevent us from sinning. What did they seem to be teaching about sin and righteous living? They thought it was okay to continue living in sin and that because they were forgiven did not need to necessarily lead righteous lives. John warned us that Christ will be returning and will be our final judge, and that He will judge according to our acts.

How does the presence of god's seed in us keep us from habitual lawlessness and sin? I am so very new to this, but I can truly confess that having the seed of the Holy Spirit planted inside of me has made a HUGE difference in my life! I know that it is completely by the power of the Holy Spirit that I do not give in to sin or temptation the way that I once did prior. I do not even fully understand this myself, it has been an incredible, amazing experience that I so desire to share with anyone and everyone that I am able to! Before I received Christ into my life, I still studied the Word, I still attended church on Sunday's, but something big was still missing. I hadn't handed over full control of my life to Him. I still thought I was the one steering, I knew I needed guidance, but was completely unaware of the fact I needed Him to guide EVERYTHING! I had to completely hand my life over, and lose everything about me that I thought made me as a person. I had to believe that "God is in control". I needed to trust and have FAITH and believe in Jesus. I don't know how many others have witnessed this, but I attended church and didn't even really know who Jesus was. I listened to the sermons, I even paid close attention and wrote notes during service. I read bits and pieces of scripture, but I never really took the time to get to know God or Jesus or even what the Holy Spirit was. You have to wonder, how can you attend church for so many years and still not have a clue who God is, who Jesus is? But, you can! It wasn't until I fully read the Bible that I got aquainted with God, that I really began to understand. It wasn't until I took that journey with Jesus and His disciples through reading the Word that I got to know who Jesus was, and what the Holy Spirit is and what each of their roles plays in my life. How can you build a lasting relationship with someone without ever really knowing them? You most likely can't. I know there are so many people out there that have obstacles in their way that are causing them from reading the Word and getting to know their savior, but I cannot impress upon you heavily enough how important it is for you to understand, and to understand all the facts as they are written! And you will still continue to learn each and every day for the remainder of your life. We can't just read the Bible once and be done with it. We have to continue to read and re-read, and re-read for the remainder of our lives. This is how we will come to truly know Jesus, this is how we are fed. How does the Holy Spirit sanctify us and make us like Jesus? The Holy Spirit continues to work within us, dwelling within and preventing us from continuing in sin. This is an ongoing process that we need to understand doesn't happen overnight.

How does lawlessness show up in a person's attitude and actions? For me this was a difficult reality to face up to. I never realized how selfish I was and how my attitude effected the outcome of so many things. When we develop a true love for Jesus, and become well aware of who He really is, we better understand how our attitudes need to be changed. You really ask yourself before acting out on something, "What would Jesus do?" He wouldn't lie, cheat, or steal. And He certainly wouldn't act on selfish motivation when making any choice or decision. If He did, we most likely wouldn't be receiving the forgiveness we receive. When people say "I don't want to do that, it's not fair." I think to myself, Jesus probably didn't want to hang on that cross and die for all of our selfish, evil ways either, but HE DID, for us. In what sense is an attitude of lawlessness the cause of sin in our lives? If we create our own set of rules and decide what we feel is just or unjust, it only leads to selfishness, and out of selfishness nothing good comes. We are bound to sin when we think of only ourselves. You need to have the same gentle, kind, loving, caring attitude that Jesus possessed. When you love someone, you treat them with kindness, and gentleness, and you can still teach them right from wrong. Look at all we have learned from Him!!!

In what way does our expectation of Christ's Second Comingmotivate us to purify ourselves from sin? How does purifying ourselves from sin relate to God's grace? 1 Thessalonians 5:2 "For you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night" He is going to return at any time, the expectation of his return is intended to keep us aware, alert and prepared. It is impossible to be sinless and human, but we can continue to repent and purify ourselves to be prepared for His return. But, there is no work we can do to save ourselves, it is by God's grace alone that we are saved. However, we cannot lean on that, we must change our ways and live a more sin free life. The Bible does warn that when the master returns we will be dealt with harshly, and we will be held accountable for our actions. It has been my own personal experience that if we get into the Word daily, study what God has put in front of us, and receive Him into our hearts, that the Holy Spirit does much of the work for us. Temptation will always be there, but when you have Jesus in your heart and living within you, it's much easier to turn away from. You just have to be strong and consistent in your commitment to Christ.

In what sense are we "children of God"? We are children of God when we are reborn asking for forgiveness of our sins and receive the Holy Spirit into our hearts. What does the Holy Spirit have to do with this "new birth"? The Holy Spirit moves into us and resides in us making us no longer of this world, but reborn into God's Kingdom. How does the new birth change us? The new birth changes us completely. We become better aware of right and wrong. We tend to worry less knowing God is in control. We know the impossible is now possible with God guiding our lives.

If we have the Holy Spirit, why do we need teachers in the church? We will always need fellowship and human guidance, if not , then why would God use us or need us? Like Moses and John, God used them to guide us and to teach us. I may not completely understand or get something I read, but God may place someone here on earth in front of me to explain it better to me. Then I too will be equipped to teach more accurately. How does the role of the anointing differ from the Holy Spirit's spiritual gift of teaching? "The anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as His anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counerfeit -- just as it has taught you, remain in Him." (1 John 2:27)

What does it mean to abide / remain / continue in Jesus? To abide and continue in Jesus is to daily seek Him and His teachings out. It is too easy as a human to be tempted and drift away. Pray without ceasing. Constantly seek to understand the Word and to learn more. Give an example of what a Christian might be doing who is "abiding" in Jesus: A Christian who is abiding in Jesus is most likely reading the Word daily, speaking to God daily, and constantly seeking out more knowledge and allowing the holy Spirit to guide their ways. What are symptoms in a Christian who is not "abiding" in Jesus? A Christian who is not abiding in Jesus is most likely in a very dark place. They may not be aware of their daily sinning. To know Christ and His laws is to obey them. Even Christians will continue to sin, however, the Holy Spirit makes them more aware. Someone who is not abiding in Jesus may think it's okay to continue to live in sin because they feel they are forgiven no matter what.

If we know the truth, we know the way, and the Holy Spirit continues to teach us and lives within us so we do not need anyone else to teach us the truth. The Holy Spirit teaches us everything we need to know and is not a lie. He teaches us to remain in fellowship with one another and to continue seeking out the Word.

What is the "anointing" that John is talking about? Receiving of the Holy Spirit In what way is anointing connected to the Holy Spirit in the Bible? The anointing of the Spirit can cause miracles of provision to come forth (Matthew 15:30-37) Has every Christian received this anointing? No, I do not believe that every person that labels themselves as a Christian has necessarily received this anointing. There is more to it than that. There are many people that attend church and call themselves Christian, but are afraid to be baptised, they are afraid of the commitment. I believe there are even those of us that can be baptised and have not necessarily received the Holy Spirit at the same time. What do I think? I think I still have a lot to learn and understand about this topic and crave to learn more. It's still somewhat confusing to me. However, I do believe I have received the Holy Spirit since I have embraced Jesus to the fullest and have complete faith in Him. It wasn't until after I fully read the Bible all the way through that I began to have a better understanding. But, when I prayed with my husband when he was really depressed and feeling lost, I felt something entirely different move through my body, and I know it was the Holy Spirit.

1) The anti-christ that John expects to come is the one that will stand in God's temple and be an abomination that causes desolation. 2) Anti-christs are any individuals not believing in Jesus Christ. There are many among us today. 'The anti-christ' will lead all unbelievers into following him and worshipping him. 3) The way that morals are constantly being tested and falling to the wayside is just one example of how we see the spirit of the anti-christ at work today.

Q4. (1 John 2:15-17) What kinds of sins are covered by the three examples of worldliness that John gives? 1) **** of the flesh. 2) **** of the eyes. 3) Pride Why are these sometimes so difficult for us to discern in ourselves? Its very difficult for us to fully comprehend the scope of our selfish desires and pride. This world and society is driven by selfish desires. The more you make, the greater you are, the more you are admired and recognized at work / socially, the better person you are thought to be in this world. When in reality we are fooled and blinded by the evil ways of this world. Sometimes daily stresses of having to survive, feed your family or 'feel accepted' take over if we do not have a full understanding of who truly provides for us and protects us. Why is worldliness so harmful to our future? You cannot serve the Lord and money both. You have to give up your worldly ways in order to stay in touch. Jesus makes this easy, the Holy Spirit conforms you to what God wants you to be. Even though those worldly desires will always be there tempting you, God provides love and protection.

The world is the devil's playground. When giving into the ways of this world, we are allowing ourselves to be manipulated and controlled by satan. Money, greed, selfish desires are all examples of loving something of this world that takes our eyes and hearts off of Jesus. If you truly love in the way God designed you to love, you realize everything in this world is merely temporary. It's the things unseen with the naked eye, but felt with the heart that are eternal and everlasting. This life is a mere breath, gone in the blink of an eye, nothing that we feel we 'own' in a material sense on this earth will go to heaven with us.

John teaches us through encouragement. His encouragement builds our confidence in the Lord. In what ways? By letting us know our sins are forgiven, by telling us we've known our Father from the beginning. By assuring us He is our Father and because of that we are STRONG, we have Him in us and His strength is ours. We were born with the Word on our lips and in our hearts. Whether we are children, young men, women, or parents, we all continue to learn and eventually begin to teach others and encourage others. The reason John takes the time is the same reason any of us are taking the time to encourage, because our enthusiasm from realizing God's love in our own lives inspires us to encourage others and lead them to His light.

How does hate and unforgiveness blind us spiritually? It's all too easy to fall into the temptations of this world and let pride get in our way. We've all been tested and as we get closer to God, satan wants to tempt us even more. Hate and unforgiveness only lead to darkness. As quoted in Matthew 6:15 "If you do not forgive others of their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." Therefore blinding us spiritually. You cannot let your guard down, you have to hold on strong to love, faith, and hope. You have to put all of your trust in Jesus and really know what He did for us on that cross. Everytime I feel completely healed and at peace inside my heart, the devil comes along and reminds me of the cruelty of this world. Past hurts are resurfaced that I thought were healed, and I have to again lean on Jesus to heal me. It's an ongoing process and we need to be constantly reminded of that. If we have been darkened by hurt and hate, how do we come into the light? I can't imagine anyone out there that hasn't been darkened by hurt and hate. It's all around us, everywhere. This world is full of evil, cruelty lurks all around us. The only way to the light is through love and forgiveness. Pray without ceasing. I like to imagine keeping God on speaker phone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Q5. (1 John 2:3-6) How can we be serious about obeying Christ without become legalistic and judgmental, with a self-righteous attitude like the Pharisees had? How do love and legalism differ? How can we be serious about obedience and make love our center? I struggled with this terribly before I read through the entire bible and became better familiar with how everything comes together. I know I still struggle with this, and most likely will continue to, but I have noticed that my challenges are considerably less now because I act on love before anything. For me, when I focused strictly on following the commandments given, and didn't highlight on the two most important ones, LOVE GOD and LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR, I found it considerably easy to judge others and even myself. I was constantly criticizing my own ways and others, focusing on all the sins we would all continue to take part in. I think we have to get to know God by reading through the Old Testament, and understand why things happened the way they did. Then I think it is important to learn about Jesus, in the New Testament, and realize the different approaches. I may be wrong, because I am just learning all of this myself, I am a new Christian and just getting better aquainted with the bible myself. But, it seems in the Old Testament that God was so frustrated and angry at our actions as humans. His constant disappointment in us led to destruction. But when Jesus came, He walked the earth as a man, a very gentle, kind, loving man. He taught with love, compassion and showed people the way to His light. God showed us how very much he loved us by coming to this earth in human form and never sinning and taking punishment for all of our sins. How amazing is that?! We do the crime, He does the time, and ultimately is executed for our actions. He did this all out of LOVE for us. When you put love at the center, it makes everything else easier. If He can love us this way, we should too love all others the same. I am not the greatest at wording things that are going through my mind, and putting it all down on paper. But, I am guilty of sin, no different than others...and I know God has given me forgiveness through the blood of Jesus, no matter what I do. So, who I am to judge others and ridicule them for their mistakes when God has been so gracious to forgive all of mine. We are ALL forgiven that come to Him. So, my new approach to the ones I used to judge and criticize, is simply to love them with all my heart, teach them with my own actions by loving them unconditionally.

Q4. (1 John 2:1-2) What assurance does John give us if we do sin? How does this comfort us? How does it make us want to avoid sin? John gives us the assurance that Jesus Christ died for our sins, and comes to stand against God as our Judge. We will continue to sin, but we are forgiven, thanks to Jesus and for God's ultimate sacrifice. That is very comforting to me, because I know as a human that sin will continue to find me. But, I as a Christian who is saved, I want to avoid sin. This was something I couldn't do on my own, I had to let the Holy Spirit work inside me and get to know Jesus intimately so as to not want to disappoint Him any longer. When you build a true relationship with Christ, He delivers light to your heart and removes the darkness, making you want to sin less.

Q3. (1 John 1:9) How would you define "confession"? Why is confessing our sins so important? What happens to us if we stop confessing our sins? What are the promises given to us if we do confess our sins? How is forgiveness of sins different from cleansing? Confession is opening up your heart and letting all truth be spoken. It is praying to God for forgiveness, and also talking to others about your sins. If we stop confessing our sins, we stop living in truth. The truth will set you free. When you stop confessing, you are lying not only to God and others, but to yourself and cheating yourself from living in the light. God promises to forgive us with His mercy and grace when we confess our sins. For me it seems forgiveness is a gift from God, to show how much He truly loves us. The cleansing comes from the Holy Spirit working inside of us and preventing us from sinning the same again. You can ask for forgiveness and receive it, but its not until you repent of those sins that you become cleansed.

Q2. (1 John 1:5-7) What is the result when a Christian walks in darkness, that is, continues willfully to do what he or she knows to be wrong? How does this involve self-deception? What is the result, according to verse 7, when we walk in the light? How do we get back into the light if we sin? It has been my experience that it's quite difficult to walk in the darkness after Jesus transforms us. Sins that I thought I'd never have the power to stop doing have stopped because the Holy Spirit works within me now. I notice how I catch myself when I sin knowingly, and I feel even worse than ever. I am not sin free, but I am way more aware of my sinful nature and more eager to confess and repent of my ways now. You deceive yourself if you think you can continue to sin and live in darkness and have the Holy Spirit working within. 1 John 5 "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it." The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. If we confess our sins, we are cleansed and again able to walk in the light.

Q1. (1 John 1:3-4, 6-7) Why is our fellowship with fellow Christians so often just on a surface level? How can we have fellowship at a deeper level in Christ? What would it take in your Christian group or your relationships with other believers to deepen your level of fellowship so it is authentically Christian? A: Our fellowship with other Christians is often just on surface level because too many of us count strictly on forgiveness and tend to forget about love, mercy and grace. We tend to lose the fact that it is not our place to judge and as many Christians have the reputation to do, we judge worse than most. We tend to believe that we are better because we live in the light, but then you have to wonder if we are then really living in the light. Love is greater than all, and when you realize that, the rest of the laws come easy. You no longer care to judge, you just love and help guide. A: We can have fellowship at a deeper level with Christ by allowing the Holy Spirit to work in us. By truly loving one another as Jesus loves us. A: I feel to deepen the level of fellowship with my relationships and how I have found a way to feel authentically Christian, I have had to learn to love gently, without criticizing, realizing I am imperfect myself and still a baby in God's eyes. I am still learning, growing and being disciplined. I need to use my experiences that God has given me to help others and again, not judge others for their ways, and remember that we have all been there in that darkness before. As a true Christian, it's not our place to judge others for living in the darkness, it's our place to help them to discover the light.

Hi, my name is Deborah, I am from Michigan. I just recently finished reading the bible all the way through for the first time. I feel completely transformed and am looking forward to studying further to gain a greater understanding of what I have already read. I look forward to meeting others that are walking this walk with me, and feel so blessed to be where I am today in my relationship with Christ!!! I only hope to be able to help serve and lead others to this same place that I have found. Romans 15:5-6 "May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus. Then all of you can join together with one voice, giving praise and glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."